The "best" adapters are made by Novoflex and Voigtlander, but these are going to cost in the $180-300 range. You can get "good enough" adapters for $20 or less on eBay.

Which you choose really depends on how much you intend to use it and what your tolerance for less than precise craftsmanship is. If I had some really valuable lenses I might consider buying one of the more expensive adapters, but my tastes in lenses run more toward the yard sale special.

I personally find shooting with the adapted lenses a lot of fun, but focusing can be difficult/slow in some conditions without an EVF (although I get by without an EVF even with the low-resolution LCD of my E-PL1).

I know that some members have switched to the NEX system with its "focus peaking" and found that made focusing legacy lenses a lot easier.
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Maybe you could consider trying a cheapie adapter to give you a feel of how the E-PM1 works with your lenses. If you find you like it, then order the Novoflex; if not, then you're only out $15-20. Of course, I guess you could do the same thing by ordering the Novoflex and returning it if you find the functionality of the lens-camera combo doesn't make it worth the investment to you.

The "best" adapters are made by Novoflex and Voigtlander, but these are going to cost in the $180-300 range. You can get "good enough" adapters for $20 or less on eBay.

Which you choose really depends on how much you intend to use it and what your tolerance for less than precise craftsmanship is. If I had some really valuable lenses I might consider buying one of the more expensive adapters, but my tastes in lenses run more toward the yard sale special.

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I agree with this statement. The old saying "you get what you pay for" applies with adapters. The cheap adapters work fine but they don't "always" have the best fit/tolerance and sometimes they just break. I've used a variety of lens adapters for several different camera systems and lens mounts. Out of probably 20 different adapters (all sold under different brand names) I've bought (all cheap ebay adapters) I've had two adapters with problems (one just didn't fit right and the other broke ... the front bayonet ring just popped out).

Trying to figure out the "best" cheap adapter is like trying to figure out what is the "best" meat from a processing plant with health code violations. When something is made as cheaply as possible there is going to be a greater potential for problems regardless of the brand in question. The problem is not the brand name ... the problem is the cheap manufacturing process.

Odds are you will be just fine with a cheap adapter ... just understand that the "best" adapter is probably one of the expensive models. The question is, how much value do you place on the metal tube connecting a lens to you camera?

Steve Gandy at Cameraquest sells Voigtlander and RayQual adapters, mostly from $180-200. I've never heard anything bad about them except for the price. The Novoflex adapters are more expensive, but I don't know if they're any better.

The cheap ones tend to be built to lower tolerances and almost always focus past infinity. this makes zone focusing using the scale on the lens inaccurate.

To sum up, the best PK adapters cost $100 or more, but I use an $18 model. It's $100-300 on a passive metal tube or put that money toward a micro 4/3 lens with CVD coatings and micro motors to set aperture and focus. My money goes toward the lenses. (It really goes toward golf and car repairs, but for the purposes of this forum, let's say it goes toward camera gear.)

Off topic, but I think the M42 to K mount gadget made by Pentax was a really fiddly piece of metal. Mine was always getting stuck in the camera body.

Back on topic, a PK adapter does have one moving part, which is the lens release. If that broke, then you might have some issues getting the lens off. And it could be nice to have it register at infinity so that the DOF scale is useable. Some of the adapters can be D-I-Y shimmed for infinity focus. Still, it's your camera, lens, and money.

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